Crime: Thayer Admits a Stock Swindle

Thayer Admits a Stock Swindle

When Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Thayer resigned last year amid Securities and Exchange Commission allegations of illegal insider stock trading, he contended that the charges were "entirely without merit" and vowed to fight. Last week Thayer threw in the towel. He and an associate, former Dallas Stockbroker Billy Bob Harris, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Washington to obstructing justice by giving false testimony during an SEC investigation of his dealings.

By pleading guilty, Thayer admitted to a prosecutor's allegations that in 1982, while chairman of the Dallas-based LTV Corp. and a director of four other companies, he passed...